I feel so damn useless, people are posting on twitter that they convinced this or that family member to vote rationally, or vote “en blanco” (null) if they were to vote for Milei.
Survivors of the last dictatorship torture and extermination camps are riding on buses, trains and the metro explaining what happened to them and begging people to think before voting.
But all my family members already are going to do the sensible thing and I don’t have the capability of persuading anyone of anything (I always joke that my CHAR stat is -3).
I can only worry and wait.
Don’t be. Each one of us by himself can only do so much… but… If you are in any medium or venue where this is discussed, insert a comment on behalf of sanity. Even one person watching the comment section who sees that and pauses to think, keeps a light on… but don’t torment yourself. You are one of millions, your share and your reach will necessarily be small, but every little bit helps.
I’m doing that, but I can’t stop feeling that is not enough.
Well, now an elected representative of Milei’s party retweeted a known neo-nazi.
When it was pointed out to her, she said that he had “interesting ideas”, finally (after several hours) she retracted that, but she hasn’t deleted the tweet.
Their vicepresidential candidate is accusing doctors and women of practicing partial-birth abortions…
It pains me that they so closely copy the U.S. alt-right, I demand my autochthonous fascist motherfuckers to at least be argentinian fascist motherfuckers!
US Cultural Imperialism at its finest. Sorry.
We (or at least about half of we) are so ashamed for our country.
Don’t worry, I at least don’t blame you (the sane half) for this, fascist motherfuckers copy one another since fascism was invented.
It’s depressing because it can be interpreted as cultural decline on our part, we used to invent our own right-wing assholery instead of importing it ready-made.
Oh, look, the other side does the same:
"That is why, dear Sergio, I send you all my support from Spain and my most sincere wishes of success for the upcoming elections on November 19. Good luck and let’s win.
Sánchez has thus joined other presidents and former presidents, such as José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Brazil’s Lula da Silva, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Colombia’s Ernesto Samper, Uruguay’s José Mujica and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who in recent days have shown their public support for Massa.
Though this gets on my nerves, I must admit:
Sánchez’s support for Massa, which the Argentinean candidate has published this Tuesday on his social networks, has been “spontaneous”, according to sources from his campaign.
If you treat people as stupid, they get cross at you. I am afraid things like that are the reason why Milei still is in with a chance.
But Pardel-Lux the dog knows more because he’s a dog than because he’s a Sanxe… 
I am not a dog! Soy un lince! Which in figurative Spanish means someone who sees better than average indeed. 
Hehehe, I suppose I should translate the dog/sanxe part too but it’s an intricate spanish expression.
“Mas sabe el perro por perro que por Sanxe” it’s play on an old adage:
“Mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo” (“The devil is know more things because he’s old than because he’s the devil”)
“Perro = Pedro, and Sanxe = Sanchez”
Something very strange is happening.
LLA (Milei’s party) is at the same time denouncing an impending fraud and autosabotaging its own poll-watching apparatus.
To understand this you need to know a bit about the Argentinian election process.
It is very simple and it has worked without a flaw since 1983:
- You go to your poll station, in it there is a table with a box in it and the poll officials
- you give your identity card to the main poll official who verifies that you are meant to vote in that table, poll watchers from each party check it too.
- the main poll official gives you an envelope
- You go into a closed room (so nobody can see who you are voting for) next to the table where there are ballots for each party
- You select the ballot for the party you want to vote, put it in the envelope and go out
- You put the envelope in the box.
At the end of the election day the box is opened and the ballots are counted.
It’s simple, requires no advanced tech and is nearly impossible to cheat.
However it has a possible point of failure and that is the ballots, if the ballots for a given party run out you cannot vote for it.
This is pretty simple to avoid if your party is responsible, each party is given an amount of money so it can print all the ballots it needs, and poll watchers for that party are responsible for checking the ballot provision in each voting table.
But LLA has so far:
- Not printed the amount of ballots it should’ve printed (what happened with the rest of the money is anybody’s guess)
- Not recruited enough poll watchers in many provinces
- Said that they didn’t turn the ballots to the electoral commission to be distributed in election day because they don’t trust it and will provide them to the voting table “as needed” (this would require an enormous and well-oiled organization, something they definitely don’t have)
At this point I see 4 possibilities:
- They know they are going to lose and are looking for an excuse
- They think they are geniuses and the other parties are idiots but in fact they are so incompetent that they are going to lose due to incompetence instead of popular will
- They are geniuses and they are going to win…
- They are incompetents but they are going to win anyway because their incompetence is not enough to make them lose.
4 is the most terrifying of them all.
I think 1 is by far the most likely, but is there an even more terrifying option 5: they don’t care if they win or lose because if they lose they are planning a coup by force?
I was just thinking about that, they did something like that in Bolivia a few years ago, cry fraud and get the army to depose the president…
For several reasons the Argentinian army is unlikely to do that, but they could get the right-leaning Supreme Court to help them, may be.
My supposition is “Number 1, and they want to use instances of not enough ballots as provocation to followers to reject the legitimacy of the outcome”. Sort of like the bulldada claims up here about ballot drops and bamboo paper and counting machines programmed to flip.
I’m so worried that at this point I would take option 1 in a hearbet if you asked me to choose.
The problem with that is that they are ahead (not over the margin of error, though) in most polls!
That is worrying, especially given that for the last few years in the UK, final results have consistently been significantly to the right of polls (in other words, when asked in polls who they will vote for people will lean left more than they do in the privacy of the voting booth). The opposite motivation (say you’re going to vote for someone more right-wing than you really are) is harder to fathom. But not impossible of course. And polls can be wrong for any number of other reasons.
There are people who so hate Peronism that may be they are ashamed to say they are going to vote for Massa.
Then again I’m sure that given Milei’s bizarre antics some people are going to vote for him but are ashamed to admit it.
So here we are, waiting to know.
In Argentinian terms: “this is like the world cup final but lasting months”
I got drunk very few times in my life, 3, I think.
If we win this one I plan on getting absolutely stinking DRUNK.
A few days ago they tried to sue the Gendarmeria (a kind of militarized police that among other things takes care of the physical security of the ballot boxes) for helping with this fraud.
Today they had to present themselves in court with the proof for their assertions and they… didn’t.
Now I’m even more worried, because I’ve always thought that an idiot is far more dangerous than an evil person, and these guys are both!
ETA: Their attorney just admitted in court that they do not, in fact, have any proof, that they did it so their warnings are taken seriously.
I read the other day that this election is considered by some to be the world’s first “AI election” where both parties are using artificial images in their advertising. As if things needed to get stranger. I hope people make the rational decision.